


Then She Cried

by Merfilly



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-01-15
Updated: 2008-01-15
Packaged: 2017-12-25 08:45:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/951081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two Dinahs face their loss</p>
            </blockquote>





	Then She Cried

**Author's Note:**

> This is set against JLA:YO continuity in that I tried to explore what post-COIE Dinah Lance's life might have been like.

It was the first time in a while that the Lance household had been at peace, Alan reflected sadly. Ever since Junior had found her meta-gift, she had been more at odds with her mother over the issue of taking up a costume for herself.

Today, with both Dinahs dressed in stark shades of black and grey, quiet reined. Today, with everyone healed enough to be seen in public safely, they were going to lay Larry Lance to rest. The man had been a valiant friend, partner in so many way to his wife, a mentor and model to his daughter. The entire JSA had assembled for this burial, to honor a man who had never been one of their official number, but who had contributed as surely as Black Canary had.

Alan offered his arm to Black Canary, while Ted took Junior's arm. The younger Dinah had been holding herself together well, given that she'd always been closer to her father, but Alan knew it was a facade. The girl had always hated being weak in her mother's eyes, something reinforced by Senior's insistence that the girl not follow in her footsteps.

They went by ring-construct to the cemetery, where Hippolyta took up Ted's other side, while Junior looked on, somewhat distantly. Black Canary's chin remained up, listening as Wesley delivered a quiet eulogy over the grave. Johnny was beside himself, trying to stay close to the Canary but shaken by this to the point Ceiu was very worried. Jay kept rubbing at his eyes, as if he still could not believe the man was gone. He, like Alan, were more than glad that their wives had only rarely gotten caught up in their costumed lives.

It was after Wesley finished that it truly sank in, that this was the end of an era. Black Canary finally acknowledged her grief, kerchief coming up to catch the first public tears since the day Larry had fallen to Aquarius. She faced the fact she had been left behind by the man that had shared her lives, both as florist and heroine. It was never supposed to have been this way. They'd discussed what to do, if she fell in battle, especially where their daughter was concerned.

She looked at the young woman...girl, still, really...and felt despair sinking in. How could she reach the child who even now tried to hide the raw pain of losing her father, when they'd been nothing but antagonists for too long?

"Baby..." Dinah Senior moved closer to her only child, awkward in just how to do this. "We've only got each other now..." She opened her arms, offering comfort, praying her daughter did not rebuff this.

Junior looked at the woman she admired and loathed by turns, hearing her daddy's voice in her memories. She almost could not see her mother in this small woman who looked lost and afraid.

//She loves you, kiddo...just like she loves me. She just doesn't know how to show it so well...They say old man Drake raised her too hard, to much like a son.//

Junior had never known her grandfather, but looking at her mother now, she imagined just what it had to have been, to have been such a driven woman back in the forties. She wondered just how her mother had done it...and then she knew.

Daddy had made it possible for Mama to bear the weight. Junior moved then, as her mother's arms wavered, accepting the embrace, and offering comfort of her own.

Only then, knowing at last just how much they both had lost, did Dinah Laurel let herself cry.


End file.
